prodigiousnessn.

1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. ⁋13 The Disciples..wondering at the prodigiousnesse, of the woman's Religion.

a1656 Bp. J. Hall Shaking of Olive-tree (1660) ii. 289 The corporal receiving of Christ hath in it a further prodigiousness, and horrour.

1723 S. Mather Vindic. Holy Bible 309 The prodigiousness and irregularity of the punctuation of some words.

1776 T. H. Lowth Ess. Archit. 6 The genius of the Eastern Nations..was more taken with the enormous size and prodigiousness of a Building, than with the grace and nobleness of its proportions.

1832 L. Hunt Sir Ralph Esher I. xi. 233 The..neatness of their operations, contrasted with the prodigiousness of their fists.

1887 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 16 183 Complete and terrible demoralisation arising from the prodigiousness of the infamous gin trade.

1929 Newark (Ohio) Advocate & Amer. Tribune 2 Feb. 7/5 Theatrical precocity is rarer than other forms of prodigiousness.

1958 Q. Rev. Biol. 33 283/1 This book deals with the most common controversial questions about snakes—the prodigiousness of their appetites, [etc.].

1986 Illustr. Weekly India 13 July 57/2 But it was not all this that carried his students to the pinnacles of prodigiousness.

2002 Observer Mag. (Nexis) 5 May 55 Of course, these thirtysomething women still have time enough to reproduce families of Victorian prodigiousness, should they so desire.

2003 Chicago Sun-Times (Nexis) 19 Aug. 41 In fact, extended exhibitions of this special gift, more Rain Man-esque than Mozartian in its prodigiousness, are somewhat unsettling.